NAME

simple_scan - scan a set of Web pages for strings present/absent

SYNOPSIS

  simple_scan [--generate] [--run] {file file file ...}

USAGE

  # Run the tests in the files supplied on the command line.
  # --run (or -run; we're flexible) is assumed if you give no switches.
  % simple_scan file1 file2 file3

  # Generate a set of tests and save them, then run them.
  % <complex pipe> | simple_scan --generate > pipe_scan.t

  # Run one simple test
  % echo "http://yahoo.com yahoo Y Look for yahoo.com"  | simple_scan -run

DESCRIPTION

simple_scan reads either files supplied on the command line, or standard input. It creates and runs, or prints, or even both, a Test::WWW::Simple test for the criteria supplied to it.

simple_scan's input should be in the following format:

  <URL> <pattern> <Y|N> <comment>

The URL is any URL; pattern is a Perl regular expression, delimited by slashes; Y|N is Y if the pattern should match, or N if the pattern should not match; and comment is any arbitrary text you like (as long as it's all on the same line as everything else).

COMMAND-LINE SWITCHES

We use Getopt::Long to get the command-line options, so we're really very flexible as to how they're entered. You can use either one dash (as in -foo) or two (as in --bar). You only need to enter the minimum number or characters to match a given switch.

--run

--run tells simple_scan to immediately run the tests it's created. Can be abbreviated to -r.

This option is mosst useful for one-shot tests that you're not planning to run repeatedly.

--generate

--generate tells simple_scan to print the test it's generated on the standard output.

This option is useful to build up a test suite to be reused later.

Both -r and -g can be specified at the same time to run a test and print it simultaneously; this is useful when you want to save a test to be run later as well as right now without having to regenerate the test.

PRAGMAS

Pragmas are ways to influence what simple_scan does when generating tests. They don't output anything themselves.

Pragmas are specified with %% in column 1 and the pragma name immediately following. Any arguments aer supplied after a colon, like this:

   %%foo: bar baz

This invokes the foo pragma with the argument bar baz.

xx

The xx pragma allows for very simple-minded internationalization. It assumes that you want to substitute each of a list of two-character country codes into a string (most likely somewhere in the URL, but possibly in the comment too). simple_scan will do this for you, creating a test for each country code you specify. For instance:

   %%xx: es au my jp
   http://>xx<.mysite.com/     /blargh/  Y  look for blargh (>xx<)

This would generate 4 tests, for es.mysite.com, au.mysite.com, c<my.mysite.com>, and jp.mysite.com, all looking to match blargh somewhere on the page.

agent

The agent pragma allows you to switch user agents during the test. Test::WWW::Simple's default is Windows IE 6, but you can switch it to any of the other user agents supported by WWW::Mechanize.

   http://gemal.dk/browserspy/basic.html /Explorer/ Y Should be Explorer
   %%agent: Mac Safari
   http://gemal.dk/browserspy/basic.html /Safari/ Y Should be Safari

AUTHOR

Joe McMahon <mcmahon@yahoo-inc.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2005 by Yahoo!

This script is free software; you can redistribute it or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.6.1 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

cpanm Test::WWW::Simple

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Test::WWW::Simple